Louisville smothers CSU

Rams commit 20 turnovers in NCAA loss

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- All good things must come to an end. Saturday at Rupp Arena was that time for Colorado State's historic senior class.

Statistically the best group of Rams in program history, Colorado State was knocked out by the best team in the country, as No. 1 overall seed Louisville pressured and blitzed its way into the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 with an 82-56 victory.

Coach Rick Pitino's full-court pressure defense was in high gear, scoring 24 points off 20 CSU turnovers, repeatedly firing up a very pro-Louisville crowd. To make matters worse for the Rams, the Cardinals (31-5) were pretty good offensively, too. They dominated the paint, 42-12, and shot 12percent above their season average (56.4) as guard Russ Smith led the charge with a game-best 27 points.

"I just describe it as total chaos," CSU senior forward Greg Smith said of the Cardinals notorious pressure that caused the Rams to turn it over nearly twice their season average (10.9). "Some of those guys are just so fast. You may think that you have an open lane ... (But) they close it down so quick."

Eighth-seeded CSU (26-9) came out playing well offensively and made six of its first nine shots -- including two 3-pointers by Dorian Green -- to lead by two on a couple occasions in the first 8 minutes. Then came four straight turnovers midway through the first half that changed everything.

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The consecutive giveaways were the start of a 9-minute stretch in which the Cardinals outscored CSU, 29-10, giving U of L a 43-26 lead with 3 minutes to go in the half. Russ Smith capped the stretch with his fourth 3 of the half, leading to a 45-31 Cardinals' lead at the break.

The Rams were never able to get it closer than 13 after halftime, as the Louisville opened the second half on a 12-3 run to blow it open.

"They need a little luck like everybody does to win it all, but that's as impressive a team as I've been against, certainly," first-year CSU coach Larry Eustachy said. "I can't say enough about Coach Pitino and how he gets his guys to play for 40 minutes -- as impressive as I've ever seen."

Greg Smith led the Rams with 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting, while Daniel Bejarano added 10 off the bench. Colton Iverson was held in check for much of the contest by Gorgui Dieng, who limited CSU's all-conference center to just five shot attempts and nine points. Green ended up missing his next 11 attempts after making the two early 3s to finish with six points, while backcourt mate Wes Eikmeier added nine.

It was Louisville's 12th straight win, and all but one have been by double digits, advancing the Cardinals to Indianapolis to face No. 12 Oregon in the Midwest Regional semifinals.

"I think one of the reasons we played one of our best games of the season was how much respect and focus we had for Colorado State," Pitino said. "This was the toughest second round opponent that I've ever coached (against).

"We probably couldn't play any better."

Meanwhile, the loss wraps up CSU's most successful season in program history at 26-9, three more victories than any other team in the school's books. Their winning percentage (.743) ranks third-best ever, behind the 1962-63 team (18-5, .782) and 1953-54 squad (22-7, .759).

Smith, Green and Pierce Hornung (two points, one rebound) cap their careers with 81 wins, tied for the most in program history over a four-year stretch.

Back when the trio signed with the program out of high school during and after the 2008-09 season, CSU was coming off a 7-25 (0-16 in conference) campaign in 07-08. With the addition of Eikmeier in year 2 and Iverson this season, the five seniors accomplished their goal of putting the program on the map. They led the team to the postseason in each of the past four seasons, including the school's second-ever back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.

New coordinator pushes Buffs to work, play at level he expectsJim Leavitt has discovered this much about his new defense at Colorado: He has some talent with which to work, but his players need to put it in another gear. Full Story

New coordinator pushes Buffs to work, play at level he expectsJim Leavitt has discovered this much about his new defense at Colorado: He has some talent with which to work, but his players need to put it in another gear. Full Story